


Late Night Conversations about Fire Tornadoes and Other Things

by OreoLuvr13



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Evan Buckley Needs a Hug, M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21604891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OreoLuvr13/pseuds/OreoLuvr13
Summary: Eddie wakes up to an empty bed.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 7
Kudos: 543





	Late Night Conversations about Fire Tornadoes and Other Things

**Author's Note:**

> That line in the last episode where Eddie mentions that Buck has a new found obsession with natural disasters, got me thinking. How did Eddie know this? We haven’t seen anything about this before that scene and no one else mentioned it…

Eddie stretches him arm out, but instead of feeling the warm body he fell asleep next to not too long ago, he’s met with…nothing. The sheets are cold. Like whoever has been lying on them has left their bed a while ago. Things with Buck aren’t great, but they’re getting better. So where is Buck?

Sighing tiredly, Eddie sits up and quietly pads his way out to the living room in search of his missing partner. It doesn’t take long before he finds who he is looking for. He can’t help but smile when he finds Buck sound asleep on the couch. His head tilted back against the couch, small snores escaping his slightly opened mouth.

The sight is not only endearing but that also reassuring. When he first woke up to an empty bed, Eddie had to fight back the fear that something was wrong. That something happened to Buck…again. The image of Buck throwing up blood at Athena and Bobby’s place replaced with one where Buck is passed out in Eddie’s bathroom after throwing another clot.

Eddie is extra quiet as he approaches the couch, afraid that he might wake up Christopher. His son’s nightmares have definitely been fewer and he’s been sleeping through the night better, but Eddie would rather not test that tonight. Not when he has to get Buck back to bed.

Like his son, Buck hasn’t been sleeping that great since the tsunami. Hell, who is Eddie fooling. Buck hasn’t been sleeping that great for a long time, not since the explosion with the ladder truck. He feels like an ass for waking Buck up, but he has to. Buck is sleeping sitting up and his body will no doubt be hurting tomorrow if Eddie allows him to stay in that position much longer.

“Hey,” Eddie whispers as he leans in towards Buck. “Wake up, Buck.”

Buck lets out a loud snore and nuzzles his face further into the couch. He’s not going to make this easy on Eddie.

“Come on, baby.” Eddie tries again as he shakes the other man’s shoulder. “Come back to bed.”

The nudging seems to do the trick as Buck opens two tired, beautiful eyes to half slits. “Eddie? What are you doing here?”

Eddie shakes his head. “I should be asking you that. Why are you out here and not in bed?”

Buck rubs his eyes tiredly. “Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to wake you up so I came out here.”

Eddie spots the iPad that’s in Buck’s lap. “So what you came out here to what, play Cookie Jam?”

Buck snorts at the thought. “I’ve been looking up some stuff.”

Eddie doesn’t know if he should be relieved or worried. He knows how random Buck’s mind can work. In an hour Buck can go from looking up videos of singing cats to looking up every possible complication of anti-coagulants. At this late hour Eddie’s tired mind is going to go with the less trivial first. “You watching those strange YouTube videos again?”

“What no?” Buck says around a yawn. “I was looking up fire tornadoes.”

“Wh...What?” Eddie asks. “Fire tornadoes?”

“Yeah,” Buck says with more energy than anyone should have at this time at night. “Also known as fire whirls or fire devils. They start from wildfires and can reach up to two thousand degrees.”

“This is what you have been doing? Looking up facts about fire tornadoes?” Eddie asks.

“Well I already looked up waterspouts and volcanic lightening last night when I couldn’t sleep,” Buck replies. “Fire tornadoes was next on my list.”

Fire tornadoes? Waterspouts? Volcanic lightening? What the hell, Buck? If he couldn’t sleep, why didn’t he feel the need to hide it from Eddie?

“So let me get this straight, you’ve been coming out here when you can’t sleep to look up rare natural disasters?”

“Yessss,” Buck says looking down.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were having problems sleeping?” Eddie asks in a gentle tone.

Buck doesn’t say anything and shrugs his shoulders. His gaze fixed on his lap.

“Baby,” Eddie says running his hand over his partner’s cheek. “Talk to me.”

Buck mumbles something. Eddie can’t make out much, but he is able to make out “bother, selfish, all about.”

And Eddie feels like an ass. He may not have been able to make out everything that Buck has said but he gets the gist. He sits down on the couch and turns to Buck. “Buck, you know you can always come to me.”

Buck looks up. “I know that, but I also know that I’ve been making everything out about me lately. My leg and then the lawsuit. And you’re right. Everyone has things to deal with. You had Shannon dying. And then Christopher’s nightmares. Last thing I wanted was to give you something else to worry about just when we’re getting good again.”

“We are getting good again and that’s exactly why you should come to me. I know what I said. I have my own stuff going on but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to know when you’re hurting. I know you haven’t been sleeping that great but has it gotten worse lately?”

“Sometimes,” Buck admits. “The last week has been bad. This is the third night this week that I came out here when I couldn’t sleep.”

“Buck…” Eddie says. Equal parts sad and hurt that Buck has felt the need to hide this from him. “Please don’t feel like you have to hide things from me. What affects you, affects me. Affects us.”

“Okay,” Buck says giving Eddie a small smile. Eddie leans in and give Buck a soft kiss on the lips.

All too soon they pull apart. “Come on now, let’s go back to bed. We still have a couple of hours before we have to get up.”

Eddie gives Buck a hand up from the couch. “Natural disasters? Of all the things to look up you chose that. I would have thought that after the tsunami you would have wanted to stay clear of anything like that.”

“Nah, it’s the tsunami that got me into it,” Buck says as they start to walk back towards their bedroom.

Eddie doesn’t need any light to see the sadness in the other man’s eyes when he mentions the tsunami. That Buck still feels like he let Chris and Eddie both down despite being told countless times that he didn’t. He squeezes Buck’s fingers. “Thank you again for saving him.”

“How many times are you going to say that?”

“As many times as it takes for you to believe it,” Eddie says as they enter their bedroom.

Buck doesn’t say anything as he climbs back into bed, Eddie pulls him into his side. “So am I going to have to start limiting your screen time like I do with Chris?” Buck doesn’t answer but he does nuzzle his head into the crook of Eddie’s neck.

“Have you heard of a fire rainbow?” Buck asks tiredly.

“Can’t say that I have,” Eddie says as he pulls Buck in closer. “Tell me about them.”

“They’re these ice halos that are formed by these ice crystals,” Buck begins to explain.

Eddie tries his hardest to listen as Buck goes on about cirrus clouds and altitude, but it’s late and Eddie’s exhausted mind can’t keep up. But that doesn’t matter. He has Christopher sleeping soundly a few rooms over and Buck is once again in his arms where he belongs. He closes his eyes as Buck’s speech putters out and they both fall asleep.


End file.
